Originally published by BBC News, this essay by Richard Stallman,
begins:

To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is missing the
point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the
unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft, like many other
software companies, imposes on its customers.

ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a proposed
enforcement treaty between United States, and global coalition. Find
out more about how ACTA threatens free software, and join us in
action!

In mid-June, Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced a
bill
that BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow described as making it "flatly illegal
to break any kind of digital lock...". Canadian or not, you can take
action against the Canadian DMCA, read the full story.

Rhapsody and Naxos (an audiobook distributor) are now offering
DRM-free MP3 downloads. Customers are encouraged to put pressure on
these services to provide music and audiobooks in free formats
too. Read more:

Bruce Schneier has brought a new form of Digital Restrictions
Management to our attention, "Digital Manners Policies," which,
according to him, may "control what you do and when you do it, and
[will] charge you repeatedly for the privilege whenever possible."

Building on its work with the GNU Affero General Public license,
the FSF convened a meeting to discuss the impact of network services
on free software and user freedom on March 16.

Today, attendees at that meeting launched autonomo.us, a new blog
that
aims to publish essays and articles exploring the impact of network
services on user freedom. Additionally, the group published what it is
calling the "Franklin Street Statement on Freedom and Network
Services" where it lays out a summary of its thinking so far. While
the group is working independently and the statement does not yet
represent FSF policy, the FSF will continue to work closely with and
within the group, with FSF members, and with the free software
community to help inform and refine its strategy and continue to
provide leadership in regards to software freedom and network
services.

Speaking of freedom in network services, identi.ca is a microblogging
service based on the Laconi.ca microblogging software, available under
the GNU Affero General Public License. Evan Prodromou, the lead
developer of Laconi.ca and a member of the autonomo.us effort, said "I
hope that it brings more attention to the issue of Free Network
Services, and sets a good example for how to build them."

Some specific notes: the GNU mifluz package for an inverted text
index
has been revived after many years, thanks to Sebastien Diaz; the new
GNU sovix package is a website revision system, by David Englund; and
the new GNU shmm package has utilities for working with shared memory,
by Jeannie Boffel.

Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's
work. You can contribute by joining at http://www.fsf.org/join. If
you're already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some
rewards) by adding a line with your member number to your email
signature like:

The FSF is also always looking for volunteers
(http://www.fsf.org/volunteer).
From rabble-rousing to hacking, from
issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for
everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaign section
(http://www.fsf.org/campaigns)
and take action on software patents,
DRM, Vista, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.